MOONCHILD REWORKED
by thegacktjunkie
Summary: Exactly what the title suggests. More vampires, stronger vampires. A bigger role for poor Yi-Che. Random bits of yaoi lol! . And a happy ending! i've changed the second half quite a bit. read and review! Sho. Kei. Gackt Camui. Hyde. Lee-Hom Wang.JROCK
1. prologue

**MOONCHILD REWORKED**

SUMMARY – exactly what the title suggests. More vampires, stronger vampires. A bigger role for poor Ye-Che :). And a happy happy ending! Ok, so the summary SUCKS. But the fic is better (I hope?!). So, read and review, please! Sho. Ye-Che. Son. Gackt Camui. Hyde (Hideto Takarai). Lee-Hom Wang. Jrock.

DISCLAIMER – this is always necessary, right? So here goes – I don't own this film and none of the characters etc etc. I think Gackt came up with the original story of Moonchild, and he was assisted in the script writing by 2 people, don't remember their names, sorry.

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PROLOGUE

**Who are the vampires?**

The world was ruled by the vampires. Even though they were barely a fraction of the human population, their superior strength, speed and intelligence, coupled with their invincibility and seeming immortality made it impossible for it to be otherwise. Vampires headed all the important institutions in the civilized world and humans worked under them.

Who were the vampires? The humans often wondered about this, but they had very few real answers to this question. The vampires were very secretive about themselves and trying to find out about them was absolutely forbidden.

It was, however, a known fact that the vampires subsisted only on human blood. However, this did not make them 'monsters' as they never attacked humans for feeding. Rather, every adult human above the age of 18 had to donate blood to special 'feeding stations' once every two years. The vampires drank this cold 'preserved' blood. Vampires had enough sense to know that any antagonism with humans would lead to a wasteful and fruitless situation of 'war'. They had seen humans fight among themselves enough times to realize how much this volatile species loved war.

Another known fact about vampires was that they were all male. Rumor had it that no woman could ever turn into vampires (though humans didn't quite know _how_ people turned into vampires.)This also meant that no vampire ever had any relationship with a woman. They were all naturally, or by habit, homosexual and homosocial, and they kept their interaction with humans – male and female – to the minimum. However, the two communities managed to live quite peacefully together.

**The mistake **

Somewhere in the early 1980's, in the glitzy metropolitan city of New York, a young handsome and rich CEO of a big company fell in love with his young, pretty and not-so-rich secretary. There would have been nothing new about this (I mean, bosses fall for secretaries with boring frequency all over the world) if the boss, in this case, had not been a vampire, and his secretary, a human. What made it even more peculiar was that the human was a _female_. And finally, it turned out to be a _completely_ weird one-of-a-kind thing when the human dared to reject the vampire's overtures.

Ironically, she did not turn him down because he was a vampire – in fact she did not even know he was one. She rejected him because she was happily married and pregnant with her first child. I say 'ironically', because what happened next changed the fate of the vampire community forever.

The vampire boss, never having faced rejection in his (rather long) life, was blinded so much in his rage that he attacked and raped the poor girl. The girl, not being able to endure his enormous strength, died on the spot. The news of her rape and murder spread like wildfire all over the world, and the human community exploded with anger.

Seeing how agitated the humans were, the vampire community decided to take immediate actions – but then they realized that any meaningful actions were actually not possible. It was a great dilemma for them. They could capture the culprit, but then what? They could hurt him or weaken him in the sunlight, but he would eventually recover. They couldn't give him life imprisonment, because 'life' meant eternity for a vampire so that was hardly a feasible option. They couldn't kill him. They could, at the maximum, take away his vast fortune and offer it to the husband of the dead girl, a guy called Mike Walters. This is what they proceeded to do.

The emotionally charged and furious humans were sure that Walters would never accept such a fortune, tainted as it were with the blood of his wife and unborn child. So it came as a complete shock when Walters not only accepted the money, but also quietly announced that the matter was closed for him so would people please allow him to get on with his life? The murderer, rapist and now bankrupt vampire disappeared from the public eye, and as time passed by, the ghastly incident faded from public memory and, to the vampire community's utter relief, it all went back to normal.

But did it? Read on…

**Vampires vs. Humans**

Mike Walters was a research analyst at the National Anatomical Institute (NAI). Everyone agreed that he was a quiet, mild and (after he accepted the money) cowardly man. What people did not know was that beneath his rational and calm exterior, he was a complete madman. Walters was, day by day, getting consumed by his hatred for not just his wife's murderer but the entire vampire community. Hence wiping them off the face of the earth soon became his dearest wish. He knew that this was not easy, and would require time, resources and years of back breaking research.

With a group of like minded colleagues, he managed to capture that now destitute vampire who had killed his wife. Then began a ten year long complicated and clandestine investigation into that mysterious question- how are vampires killed?

After extensive work and numerous experiments on the captured vampire, Walters finally hit upon the answer. In a conference of a group of human scientists (all of whom were well aware of the illegal nature of the whole project) he unveiled his findings –

"After various failed attempts at even permanently injuring our subject, we had all but given up on our research when I decided to turn to an unusual source for more information on vampires – human myths and legends. I thought that these myths may actually be referring to some truth and therefore may, howsoever obliquely, lead us to some valuable information about them.

There was a time, before the invention of methods of preservation of blood, when the vampires had to 'hunt' humans for blood. These horrifying hunting scenes have been recorded in many a myth in the past.

What I found interesting is that in all such descriptions, the vampire is said to attack the neck, or more specifically, the jugular vein of his victim. Clearly, the vampires thought that this was the most important body part.

This led me to concentrate my research on the subject's jugular veins. The first obvious discovery I made was that it was impossible to severe these veins of the vampire's neck. I tried using many kinds of weapons, to no avail. I used the sharpest toughest weapons to decapitate him almost completely, except that his head held on to his body via those impossibly strong sets of veins. Also, within hours of almost complete decapitation, the subject was back to normal.

I went on to discover that these veins fulfill the function of a kind of a 'super heart', purifying and strengthening blood and tissues so rapidly that it becomes impossible to kill a vampire by any other means than to severe at least one of these veins.

Through further research I have come to the conclusion that there is only one 'weapon' in the entire world that can severe that vein – a vampire's hand."

Their was a hush in the audience. Then the scientists started airing their disappointment at this conclusion.

"That's the same as them being invincible, isn't it? I mean, the vampires would never kill each other come what may." they grumbled.

"I know," said Walters bitterly. "They knew that it would have been right to kill this …rapist…and they knew the right method to do it too, but they refused to even reveal to us that such an option was there at all. I understand why though- they did not wish to reveal their vulnerability to the world…"

"What kind of vulnerability is that?! Its nothing, man!" someone interrupted.

A slow smile spread over Mike Walters' face. "It _is_ a vulnerability. We know we can't kill them. But we can definitely hurt them, physically and mentally. Imagine, if a vampire is tortured beyond the brink of sanity, so that all he wishes for is death, will he not tear his own throat out with his own hands?"

Walters looked up at all their faces. He expected shock, he expected fear. To his own shock (and later, delight), he only saw eager anticipation etched on everyone's faces. Walters realized that he had underestimated how much the humans, (especially people like scientists who had strict restrictions placed on their work) hated the vampires. Without any further delay, Walters set his plans into action. One group of people was responsible for capturing vampires (a difficult and dangerous, yet not impossible, task) and another, for torturing them to death. The humans worked smoothly, with great dedication, even those who found the method unpleasant. Humans had come to resent the great power, coupled with the cold aloof nature of the vampires, and were intent on getting rid of every one of them. And this was possible only by killing them all.

By the time the vampires discovered what was happening, their numbers, already very less, had dwindled beyond hope. The vampires immediately declared war on humans and unleashed the full power of their (till now dormant) monstrous side. This, however completely backfired because the 'vampire-hunt' as it was called, from being a clandestine affair, was turned into a full fledged legal government/ military initiative by the humans. The vampires were immensely strong, but they were no match for the combined effects of the sunlight (the preferred time for attack by the humans) and the strength of millions of humans. Left with no choice, they were forced to flee and go underground.

**Year 2000**

The world is ruled by humans. Vampires have no place in it, and hence the hunt for them is still on, though not so intensely as before, as they are no longer considered a threat. The vampires live like slum dogs in ghettos, somehow surviving on stealing and plundering, and sometimes, murdering. There are only 8 countries in the world where they still survive. Each country's community has its own leader – the wisest and the most resourceful of them all – who is basically responsible for keeping them alive, from one day to the next.

The youngest leader is the leader from Japan, called Kei…

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Author's note – thanks for reading till here! Now on to the next chapter…though I want to make one or two points first –

Thank you to my friend 'mischief-maker123' for editing this thing! Go read her fics people, they're really good!

All you feminists out their, who are foaming at the mouth because the vampire community is all male, let me just tell you that it makes my story more convenient! 

I could have gone on and on about the methods used by humans to capture vampires, but it was already becoming too long …vampires are the strongest and all, but they _are_ fallible sometimes, and humans can be very cunning…basically the humans used sunlight to their advantage…I think I'll put this in later..

Do tell me if this chapter is ok, and whether I need to make any changes.

Ok now, read on ….


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

**To wish upon a star **

Kei leaned back on the train seat and closed his tired eyes. 25 days of starvation was taking its toll on him, as he could feel the exhaustion creeping up his body. This did not worry him too much though. What he really dreaded was meeting 20 equally hungry vampires back home empty handed, and admitting to them that he had, once again, failed in finding food for them.

Unlike vampires in other countries, Kei was dead against killing or even injuring humans to satiate their own thirst. He insisted on pilfering blood packets or bottles from the local hospitals, even though he knew that these 'pre-war' ethical standards made survival that much more difficult for all of them.

Unfortunately, the Japanese police seemed to have caught on to this fact recently, and hence had deliberately tightened security at all hospitals in the city of Tokyo. So, for the last 20 days or so, even though Kei had been trying very hard, using all the guile and cunning he possessed to get hold of some blood, he had failed repeatedly. He dared not let any of the others take the responsibility of this dangerous yet absolutely essential task. _Yet- I also seem to be unable to handle it_, he thought miserably. He had even tried during the day, though the sun hurt and weakened him, but he hadn't succeeded. So, now, feeling utterly dejected and defeated, he was heading home.

'Home' was a dilapidated condemned building at the periphery of the city. The building was unoccupied apart from the vampires who lived in the attic on the top floor (the fact that the building might fall any moment and crush them in their sleep did not bother them at all, obviously). The attic was like a vast hall, with no specific rooms as such. They all shared that one cramped living space, and it would have been very difficult if they all hadn't gotten along with each other so well.

As Kei reached home, he could see dawn breaking over the night sky. Steeling himself against the responses of the others, he walked in.

20 pairs of hungry eyes looked up eagerly. "Sorry guys, I've got nothing…" the lump in his throat prevented him from saying anything else.

The others tried valiantly to hide their disappointment, "its ok, we'll try again after sundown."

Kei felt that he could no longer bear to look at any of them, and headed to the roof of the building as a means of escape. _What kind of a crappy leader am I?_

He found his partner, Luka, sitting exactly where Kei thought he would be, gazing up at the rose-tinged morning sky. Kei sighed and settled down next to him on the floor. He knew that Luka was that one person to whom he could unburden his heart.

"Luka, I failed again…" Kei began morosely.

"Kei have you ever wondered why we're here at all?" Luka interrupted, as if he hadn't heard Kei at all. "Humans have so many theories, philosophies, reasons and justifications to explain that 'great unknown' – 'death'. While we, on the other hand, are stumbling through our immortal lives, not caring and never introspecting over the 'why' and the 'what for' of existence. We believe that we are 'free' from 'death' – well, at least, arbitrary death- but doesn't that mean we're trapped in 'life'?" he pointed up at a fading star in the sky-"look Kei. Some human legends say that when a good man dies, his soul becomes a star in the sky, looking down in benevolence forever…'

"Hmm… I wonder – can u squeeze a star till it bleeds and then drink its blood?" said Kei.

Luka looked at him with astonishment – "eh?"

"No, right? So couldn't u kindly do me a favor and shut up about things that don't matter?!" the irritation was now very clear in Kei's voice.

"My poor Kei – you're stressed, over worked …"Luka reached out to touch Kei's shoulder. Kei angrily slapped his hand away.

"I hate it when you get into one of your 'philosophical moods'! You're so useless! You're all so useless!" Kei knew he had no right to take out his frustrations on Luka like this but, goddamnit, he couldn't seem to help it. His voice rose higher and higher as he shouted at him. "What use are these questions of -_what was it_? – oh yeah, the 'why' and the 'what for'", Kei said mockingly, "when we are all starving for the last 20-30 days. Why don't you _do_ something Luka? When do you do_ anything? _Here I am, running back and forth, at the brink of exhausted desperation, wondering if we'll have to start murdering humans or living on the blood of rats plucked from the sewers and you……WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Luka, after hearing Kei out with an impassive face, had abruptly turned and left. Kei followed him down the stairs, where he saw a group of concerned faces looking up at them both. Luka quietly pushed past the other vampires. He was clearly leaving the building. One of them tried to stop him tentatively.

"Oh let him go!" Kei screamed. He suddenly realized that he sounded like a shrewish housewife and this did not improve his temper. He thundered into the attic, kicked a chair violently (it shattered into a hail of splinters on the opposite wall and caused the wall to get kind of dented) and retreated to a corner, muttering to himself.

The others nervously gave him a wide berth. They had never seen the calm and sophisticated Kei lose it like this before so none of them really knew how exactly to handle him. They settled down gloomily on the floor and as the morning sun rose high in the sky, one by one they all fell asleep.

All except, of course Kei. He was regretting his sudden outburst at Luka. It was true that he resented Luka's musings about life and death and such things, because when Luka got into one of his 'moods', Kei always felt somehow _excluded_ from his existence. And four hundred years of constant love and companionship made it difficult to bear such exclusion. But to lose his temper like this… _hunger's making me grumpy, _he thought.

So he stayed awake, cursing Luka, yet yearning for him, hoping to make amends as soon as possible.

Throughout the day, he sat, completely motionless, lost in his own thoughts…. "Kei, it's nearly dark! Has Luka come back yet?" Shinji's voice pulled Kei out of his reverie. He looked up – yes indeed it was evening.

"Surely he doesn't think it would take me so long to calm down?" he wondered aloud.

"We thought…" Shinji began, hesitatingly.

"What?"

"Well, that maybe Luka's gone off to find food for all of us; I mean, you were yelling at him about being usele… about food, weren't you? So we thought…" Shinji saw the startled expression on Kei's face. "Why, what did you think?"

"I thought…maybe he'd just left to let me cool off my anger…that's what he did the only other time we fought …oh, many, _many_ years ago…" Kei's voice trailed off as he realized the kind of danger he had put Luka in. Luka was much older than Kei and definitely a very competent vampire, but where Kei had failed, Luka had no chance for success.

Trying to fight the wave of panic which was threatening to overwhelm him, Kei jumped up and headed for the door, "I'm going to look for him".

"We'll all go. We'll search different parts of the city; it'll be faster that way." Shinji said, and they all rose up and rushed out.

Kei wandered from one street to another, from one hospital to another, straining to catch even the slightest whiff of that oh-so-familiar smell of Luka's body. Nothing. When the sun finally made an appearance on the horizon, he returned home, hoping that the others would have some news.

The others were all back before him. None of them had found even a trace of Luka. Kei said nothing, and set off again.

This time, he was searching in broad daylight. It made him dizzy but he couldn't care less. After wandering round and round the city till he felt disoriented, Kei decided to stop and reevaluate the situation. "Ok, don't panic." He told himself sternly. "This city is not _so _big that 20 vampires, each with the keenest sense of smell possible would not be able to find one person. This means that either Luka's left the city to try and find food somewhere outside, or he's been caught." Kei determinedly pushed away the second option from his mind and tried to plan where to go next.

He was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he did not notice that a bunch of hospital guards had recognized him as the suspicious guy who had repeatedly hung around that place many times in the last few days. These guards decided to call the police.

The police sirens alerted Kei, who immediately began to run for cover. He managed to lose them in a narrow zigzagging ally, where no vehicle could enter. The policemen obviously failed to catch him on foot, but they fired a couple of rounds of bullets, two of which hit him on the leg.

Kei did not stop running for a long time, going deeper and deeper into the poorest and dirtiest part of the town. When he was sure that he had lost them, he collapsed behind an overflowing garbage heap, gasping and gulping. He felt his lungs were about to burst out.

He rolled up his trouser leg and dug into his fresh bloodied wounds with his fingers, pulling out the bullets. Having to do this with his bare fingers hurt like mad but he had no other options. By the time he managed to pull out the second bullet, every inch of his body seemed to be ablaze with pain.

But the physical pain was nothing compared to the hurt inside. Every time he thought of him, Kei could feel his heart rip apart just a little more. "Luka…"he could hear the howl of despair echoing in his voice. He wanted to fling himself in the dirt, scream and sob his heart out…but exhaustion didn't allow even a tear to fall. So instead, he drew his legs up to his chest, buried his head between his legs, squeezed his eyes shut and began to moan, rocking back and forth rhythmically. He didn't know how long he stayed that way; he didn't even care anymore…

"Mister. Are you all right?"

Kei's head flew up as he felt a gentle touch on his hand. Simultaneously, he was blasted by the most tantalizing smell he had ever smelt. Kei looked up and groaned with frustration.

_A child! God, no…please, no, I don't want to turn into a murderer yet. Why do I have to deal with this now?_ He thought.

He pushed away the little boy's curious prodding fingers roughly. "Look, get away from me! I'm not hu…I'm dangerous! Very! If you've got any sense then you'll get out of here right now!" he growled as menacingly as he could manage.

The boy seemed strangely unperturbed. "You're not well. You're sick, I can see that. And tired. And dirty. And smelly. And…"

"How wonderfully observant of you." Kei nearly spat out in rage. "but seeing that you can't do anything about any of those things, could you kindly remove your loathsome little self away from me and just…kind of…GO AWAY?!"

"…and rude. And irritable." Finished the boy disapprovingly, adding smugly - "I _can_ help you…"

"No, you can't."

"Oh yeah? Watch me." The boy bent down and put his arms around Kei's body and started dragging him. Kei felt maddened by the delicious smell, so he gritted his teeth and concentrated on not pouncing on him and tearing him apart.

The boy placed him in a wheelbarrow, covered him with a black plastic cloth and set off at a run. Somewhere along the way, Kei felt himself slip into blessed unconsciousness.

When he finally regained consciousness, he found himself lying, on a tattered rug in the corner of a dark, tiny room. He guessed that this was somewhere in the slum area of the city. In another corner the boy was huddled over a little stove, cooking something that smelt ominously odious to Kei's sensitive nose. When he heard Kei stirring, the boy got up and brought a steaming bowl of what looked like broth to him.

Kei turned his nose away in disgust. "No thanks."

"Eat up! It's gruel. It's supposed to be good for sick people. The boy cajoled.

Kei's temper, always on the edge these days, flared again. "It's disgusting ok? I don't want to have it so stop brandishing it under my nose for god's sake!" the boy's face fell and Kei immediately regretted his harsh words.

"I'm sorry but that's all I have to offer to you." He whispered shamefacedly.

_What is wrong with me these days?_ Kei thought, disgusted with his own bad behavior. Then he said, "That's ok, really, I'm not blaming you or anything. I'm sorry I snapped at you". The boy looked up in surprise at the gentleness and kindness in Kei's tone.

"The thing is, I don't eat regular food like other people. Thanks, but you must eat that yourself, ok? Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

The child needed no further encouragement. Plonking himself down next to Kei on the mat, he gave himself up wholly to the serious task of demolishing the content of his bowl. Kei watched his complete absorption into his meal with amusement, when suddenly the boy reemerged briefly to say, "by the way, I'm Sho. What's your name?"

"Never mind that" said Kei hastily and closed his eyes to prevent any further conversation.

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Author's note – the tiny little part when Kei is mourning over Luka was SO difficult to write! I rewrote it four times and I still feel that it's a bit _off_. Sigh…I'm jealous of authors who can handle angst so well! :)


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

**Raising a Monster!**

Kei's efforts to fall asleep quickly turned futile as he realized that the boy had no intentions of going away and leaving him. So he gave up pretending and decided to restart the conversation –

"So, er…Sho. What do you do all day? Don't you want to go out and…play or something? With friends and all?"

Sho sat fiddling with the strings of the ragged mat.

"I don't really have any friends."

"What? No children around your age living here?"

"Yeah there are quite a few…but we work all the time, so no one feels like playing afterwards."

"What kind of work?"

"Whatever he makes us do. Sometimes its 'day' work like, you know, manual labour in factories and all. And sometimes…" Sho fiddled nervously with the mat, "sometimes its 'night' work…" he fell silent.

Kei felt a chill go down his spine. "Night work?" he asked gently.

"We're sent to places with men. There we do stuff…with them. To them. To ourselves."

"Who sends you?"

"Satou-san. He owns this whole place." Sho suddenly looked up into Kei's eyes and said desperately, "He's coming for me today. He told me to stay in coz he's coming to get me and take me away."

Kei saw a profound adult sorrow in Sho's brilliant blue eyes. His heart bled for the little boy. The feeling of horror inside him was replaced by steely determination. Kei resolved to do what he had vowed he would never do in his life.

"Let him come." He said grimly. "I'll protect you."

Sho shook his head disbelievingly and with a small resigned smile, said – "thank you but I don't think you can help."

_Oh yeah? Well, watch me _Kei thought, as he lay back on the mat, trying to relax. If he was going to carry out his plan of getting rid of this Satou person, he would need to preserve every last shred of energy left in his body.

So they waited, boy and vampire, as the clock ticked life away- one waiting for his doom, the other waiting for the solution to his month long problem, to arrive.

As the sun went down over the horizon, Sho grew more and more restless with fear every moment. Suddenly, a voice called out from the darkness outside, "Sho-chan? Come out come out wherever you are!"

"There's my boy!" Satou beamed as Sho emerged slowly from his shack. "And how is he, my good little boy?" he ruffled Sho's hair. "Come Sho, there's a gentleman waiting for you down the road, m'boy…in a big jazzy car! He'll take you for a vacation…you'll have fun! Go, go now…"

"I don't want to go…" Sho whispered.

"Eh what was that?" Satou's voice had become less sugary as a hint of menace crept in. "Now, now, you don't want to be difficult do you, Sho? You're a good boy, I know, a very very goo…"

"He's not going anywhere." A soft voice spoke from within the shack. Kei appeared near the doorway, smiling slightly.

Satou was completely startled by this. "Who the hell are you?" he began explosively. "I'm warning you mister, I have men…"

"Who I am is not very important is it? What's important is that I want the boy…"

Satou looked at him keenly and noted his tired, bedraggled appearance. "Fuck off. The boy's not available."

"Nothing is ever unavailable if you've got this." Kei took out a bundle of notes briefly from his pocket and shoved them back in quickly. "I'll pay double of whatever …my friend…in the car down the road is paying. Why don't you, Satou-san, tell him to leave so that we can negotiate?"

Satou immediately whipped out his cellphone and urgently spoke into it.

Kei smiled when Satou had finished. "Now, Satou-san, will you step inside for a moment please? We'll leave the child outside, and talk in private, shall we?" he said politely, holding the door open for him.

Whenever he thought over the incident later in his life, Kei always felt a sense of wonder and deep unease at how easy it was to kill a human being. All he needed to do was to get hold of the unsuspecting man's neck and swiftly break it – the man didn't even get time to cry out in surprise. Once Satou was dead, however, Kei could no longer contain his hunger, as he fell upon the body and bit off a large chunk of flesh from its arm and put his lips thirstily to the wound. The fresh wound bled profusely and for that moment, Kei forgot everything, only reveling in the sour taste of human blood, sucking and licking greedily and letting it get smeared all over his mouth and neck and shirt. He could feel the fresh blood working its magic within him, revitalizing and reenergizing a body weakened by nearly a month's starvation.

After a long feed, he sat back with a sigh and looked up – and found Sho standing directly in front of him, watching him silently. Kei froze. In his frenzy, he hadn't even heard him coming in. He could imagine how he must be looking to the child. Like a monster. He hastily tried to wipe his mouth on his shirt sleeves and looked up again.

"I was hungry." He stated as nonchalantly as possible.

Sho nodded. Kei noted that Sho looked neither frightened nor repulsed.

"Aren't you afraid?" he asked, amazed.

Sho shook his head with a 'no'.

A slow grin spread over Kei's face. A smile in response to Kei's grin lit up Sho's face making it into a sunny little thing of beauty.

Kei quickly got up and held out a hand. "Come on then. Let's get out of here - forever."

Kei piled the body into the same wheelbarrow and they set off together. Sho asked no questions, only skipped along nimbly next to Kei, happy to leave his painful life of suffering behind and excitedly looking forward to his new life with Kei.

The 20 vampires in the attic caught the whiff of human blood before Kei had even set a foot into the building, so they all came thundering down the stairs - and stopped short when they saw Sho.

"You guys can get down to your dinner, I'll explain things later." Kei said, pushing the wheelbarrow towards them. He noticed them staring at Sho and put a protective arm around his shoulder. "He is a new member of our family." He then turned to Sho, "How about we take a little walk to the market to buy some dinner for you? You can have whatever you like tonight." He took Sho's hand again lead him out of the building, looking over his shoulder once to tell them, "don't forget to clean up after you finish.

***

"Hi, I'm Sho. I'm 11 years old. I can stand on my head, and do back flips and …and eat 2 extra large pizzas in one go - I discovered that an hour back."

The room full of vampires eyed him warily. There was a long awkward silence at this rather extraordinary introduction.

Then Shinji cleared his throat and began, "Ahem. Ok, so, I'm Shinji. I'm 1024 ears old and I can … well, pretty much do everything. Though I can't eat any pizza at all, let alone 2 in a row." He grinned and held out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, Shinji-san." Sho shook his hand gravely.

"Hi Sho, I'm Toshi. I'm 786 years old and I'm really good at all kinds of sports – baseball basketball …actually, all the sports you can think of."

"Awesome! Will you teach me some stuff?"

"Course!" Toshi grinned and shook hands with the smiling Sho.

Shinji and Toshi's easy demeanor lessened the awkwardness in the room, and one by one they all introduced themselves.

When all 20 of them had finished their intros, Sho looked pointedly at Kei, who was standing in a corner watching them all in great amusement. That's when Kei suddenly realized that he had not introduced himself to Sho at all, not even told him his name, even though they had spent almost an entire day together.

"I'm Kei. I'm 448 years old…"

"Only?!" Sho interrupted.

"Yes, _only_." Kei couldn't help laughing. "I am junior most in our family after you, actually. But that really doesn't mean anything – I'm the one whose wrath you'll have to face all the time so watch out for me every time you decide to get into some kind of a mischief!"He said, mock-menacingly.

Now it was Sho's turn to laugh. "Yeah right! I'm not afraid of you!"

"Oh yeah?" Kei raised an eyebrow. "We'll see about that. Now, off to bed, it's been a long day for you. See those futons over there? Grab one, go…"

Sho was peacefully asleep in no time.

Then the others eagerly got down to the business of discussing this latest and the hugest (since the war) development in their lives. Toshi spoke first, "A boy? A _little human_ boy? What were you thinking, Kei?! I mean, how weird is that?!"

"I had no choice. _Actually_ no choice." Kei repeated when they snorted disbelievingly. "He saved my life, I owed it to him. I was so weak I couldn't move, the police would have easily caught up with me if it hadn't been for Sho. Also there was another reason…" said Kei gravely. "The man you just drank all that blood from?"

"Yeah we were wondering about that! How come you killed a man, Kei?"

"Child trafficker. Pimp. And god knows what else, a complete m*****f***** in every way possible. He was gonna sell Sho…"

A shudder went through the group. "Good thing you killed him." said Akira.

"Yeah his kind is better off dead." Said Kei grimly.

"But…" Toshi began again. "How will we handle him? We know _nothing _about rearing children because only adult males can be turned into vampires, remember? There is no concept such as vampire children. So…I mean, what are human children _like_?"

"As far as I know they kind of scream and cry all the time and when they take a break from screaming and crying they shit and pee…OW! What was that for, Akira?!" Shinji said, angrily, rubbing the spot on his head where Akira had smacked him.

"You thickheaded chump, you've got it totally wrong!" said Akira. "Only the really titchy ones are disgusting like that. Then they kinda grow out of it…I think. Say, does anyone here remember what it was like to be a child?" They all looked automatically at Kei. He was, after all, the youngest.

Kei smiled as he remembered his human childhood in the 16th century Muromachi period. "I do remember somewhat, but I don't think any of it applies anymore. Look you guys, don't get unduly perturbed about this kid…all we need to do is to use a bit of common sense. For example, we need to make him adapt to our lifestyle – which means sleeping during the day and waking at night…hmmm… I wonder if that'd be good for him…" Kei frowned as he ticked off the points on his fingers. "Then there's his diet. I wonder what food is good for a human's health? And what drinks, other than water?"

"I know I know!" said Shinji excitedly, raising his hand high up in the air like one of those annoying geeky students at school who always know all the answers. "They drink coloured liquids from fancy bottles when they …er… run around randomly in parks everyday at the crack of dawn…I wonder why? I could never figure it out, it seems quite pointless to me…OW! _Stop doing that_ Akira!"

"It's called _jogging_ and those drinks are health drinks, you brain-dead bloodsucker. Seriously, how did you survive for over a millennium without knowing anything at all about humans?"

"Then there's his education…" continued Kei, ignoring these two.

"Right. Excellent." Said another vampire, Taro, jumping up on his feet. "So basically Kei has it all covered. Which means he'll handle it all beautifully. We trust you Kei, to do your best. Ok, so how many of you feel that we should just leave it to Kei to discover how to handle the kid?" 20 hands shot up in the air as 20 faces broke into evil, cheeky grins.

"Great!" Said Taro bracingly. "Good luck Kei, though you don't need luck – this'll be a cakewalk for you haha! The rest of us will do our best in trying not to kill the kid accidentally. Now lets get out of here, we've been sitting around for too long. Kei will stay to guard the kid, I guess."

They all trooped out, studiously ignoring the dirty looks Kei was throwing at them.

When the room was empty, Kei turned to look at the small angelic figure curled up on the futon. _Cakewalk? yeah right_, he thought and sighed. Kei had a strong suspicion that the little one was going to be rather a handful.

Things started off on a smooth note the next day. Kei sat down with Sho to explain things to him.

"Sho, all of us here are vampires."

"I figured. I had heard that vampires were extinct, but then you guys here – I saw you and satou-san. And you're all really old, but young. So I figured it out."

"Right. Now, do you know how people will react if they realized that I was a vampire?"

"They'd like you." Said Sho simply.

"Eh? No!" Kei was taken aback.

"Why not? You're nice, you're kind." Sho retorted defiantly

Kei was touched by the boy's unquestioning, unconditional loyalty. "Trust me on this Sho, they would hate me. They would try to kill me. Vampires are not extinct, but most humans would do anything to actually make us so. So, it is absolutely essential that you should tell no one about us…"

Kei went on to explain fully how exactly they managed to survive – how the money they earned came from various night jobs, coupled with theft and sometimes full-on gunfights with human gangsters ("cool!" said Sho. "It's _not_ cool." Scolded Kei sternly.) And how the food, i.e. blood, came solely from theft ("Except Satou-san!" said Sho gleefully.) Sho listened carefully and fervently agreed to follow Kei's rules of secrecy.

_A peculiar child_, Kei thought about Sho, as he saw him mixing with the other vampires and becoming good friends with all of them immediately. _Strangely wise in some ways, peculiarly childish in others. Oh well, his heart's in the right place, and that's all that matters. _

They all soon discovered that it was not easy to handle Sho. The little boy was a good judge of character, so he soon noticed how the others (all except Kei, that is) seemed unsure about how exactly to handle him, and being mischievous, boisterous and intelligent, he took full advantage of this fact. His main victims were Shinji and Toshi, who had soon become his faithful side kicks. Sho twisted them arounf his little finger so that they ended up quite helpless in front of his charms and wiles.

For example, after two weeks of surviving over a disgusting 'green salad and boiled fish' diet that Kei insisted on feeding him, one day, when Kei was out, Sho went to Shinji and said sweetly, "Shinji-san, please could I have pizza tonight, for dinner?"

"No Sho-chan, Kei wouldn't like it. You know he thinks it's not healthy…"

"Pleeease Shinji-kun?" Kei won't be home early, you know that."

"No."

"Please…" Sho's brilliant blue eyes brimmed over with unshed tears at the cruelty of the world.

"Ok! Ok! Just…don't turn on the waterworks, ok?" said Shinji, in complete horror.

Sho also learnt a lot of 'unofficial' stuff about his new family from Shinji and Toshi. Kei was often very busy, and these two were always the least busy (read 'laziest') of the lot, so he sat around talking to them through the night when the others were out.

"What were you all before the war?" he asked Toshi one day. "No wait let me guess – you were some sort of a sportsperson right?"

"Yeah. I always loved sports and was obviously very good at them. Though I never got around to becoming famous or anything. I kept missing matches coz most sports or games take place during the day in bright sunlight. And I also kept getting bored and moving from one thing to another. I coached youngsters sometimes too…say, I mean to start coaching you as soon as possible ok? Let the rainy season come, then we'll go out during the day…"

"Cool, sure! Ok, how about the others?"

"Shinji was a very rich businessman. He had a successful fisheries business – that vampire knows absolutely nothing about humans, but everything about money and the marine world hehe! But man, he was loaded, you should have seen him! Though now, it's all gone…"

"And Kei?"

"Ah… Kei had a series of really interesting jobs, though none of us know clearly about what he did when." Said Toshi frowning. "He was a part of – no one of the heads of - the kempeitai…Japanese secret service…" he explained when he saw the look of incomprehension on Sho's face. "…when it was formed in the early 19th century. Then he left it coz he felt sick of the cruel way humans started behaving in there. This was before the second world war, I think. Last I know, he was the head of the intelligence bureau of the Gaimusho, the ministry of foreign affairs. He's always been involved with Japan's intelligence in some way or the other, as far as I know."

"Wow! That is _so cool_!"

"Yeah, I guess." Toshi smiled at Sho's enthusiasm. "That's why he's our leader, even though he's the youngest. Coz his extensive knowledge and unerring strategies have kept us alive in such peaceful and wonderful conditions. Do you know how other vampires live in other countries? Like vermins in sewers, sometimes steeped in the world of crime. This…" with a flourish, Toshi indicated the attic, "…is a palace compared to their living conditions. Yeah we do have certain crises situations sometimes, like the latest one that brought you to us and took away Luka…" Toshi stopped abruptly and guiltily as Kei walked in at that moment, bearing the next day's dinner – spinach casserole for Sho and bottles of blood for the rest of them.

Little Sho stared at Kei with awe – he felt a new respect for him now, and decided that he would hero-worship him forever.

"What? Why aren't you studying, how many times have I told you off for sitting around chatting like this? And why in god's name are you staring at me like that?" Kei asked suspiciously.

Sho sighed. It was the same old 'strict-nagging-parentish' Kei – it was impossible to hero-worship him. Sho rudely stuck out his tongue at Kei and answered, "I'm staring coz…coz you've got a smut on your nose so you're looking silly haha!"

"I do not have anything on my nose. You're just up to no good, as usual. I'm telling you Sho, if you don't get serious about your studies…"

"You do have a smut on your nose."

"No I don't"

"Yes you do."

"I DO NOT!"

Sho became quiet, but continued to avidly stare at Kei, chuckling softly under his breath. Kei felt profoundly uncomfortable, but went about putting the food away, whistling, trying to act casual.

The moment Sho took his eyes off him, Kei quickly turned to the mirror to check his face … there was obviously nothing on his nose. _That little devil! One of these days I'll…_

"HA HA! I made you look!" Sho rolled about in delighted laughter and even Toshi couldn't hide his smile.

Kei muttered angrily under his breath, "little brat! No, worse than a brat…little monster! You hear me?! You're a little monster! They call us monsters? Little do they know how we're raising a monster!" Kei's face now broke into a smile and he soon joined in with Sho's laughter.

Kei took the matter of Sho's education very seriously. He realized that his own vast knowledge coupled with a few textbooks would be adequate.

Sho took the matter of his own education as a simple pain in the ass. He rebelled valiantly against Kei's attempts at turning him into a more enlightened human being. In those 4 hours assigned to Sho's studies, Kei tried everyday to accomplish his near-impossible mission, while Sho tried everything to make his task even more impossible. In the span of 4 hours, Sho always took several legitimate breaks ('may-I-drink-water?' breaks followed by, obviously, 'may-I-visit-the-loo?' breaks) and several illegitimate ones (usually in the form of talking to other vampires and ignoring Kei), insidiously directed Kei into talking about less boring (and therefore not studies related) topics, played with his stationery, sighed, yawned, and when all else failed – simply tuned out Kei's voice and fell asleep. Kei (rather foolishly, in Sho's opinion) still plodded on.

One such evening, about two weeks after Sho had arrived at the attic, Kei was teaching Sho history. They were sitting together and Kei was reading out of 'Standard Book of History: Grade V' to Sho: "During the 15th and the 16th centuries, the influence of the Ashikaga Shoguns declined. The political newcomers of the Muromachi period were members of landowning military families – the _ji samurai_. They continuously fought against each other for several decades during the complicated Age of Civil Wars or _Sengoku jidai. _In this period, some of the most powerful lords were Takeda, Hojo and Uesugi…SHO! PAY ATTENTION!"

In the short span of time which it took Kei to read these 4 sentences, Sho had managed 3 gigantic yawns which would put a hippopotamus to shame.

"Ummm…what?" he muttered sleepily.

"I said pay attention." Kei resumed his reading. "A major _daimyo_ during the Sengoku period was Oda Nobunaga…" At this point sSho's head gently drooped on to Kei's shoulder, as he fell asleep and started snoring loudly. Kei sighed and put away the textbook. "Sho, you can't keep falling asleep every time." Said Kei softly, stroking the sleepy little boy's head.

"But it's so boring. How can anyone stand it?" Sho groaned.

Kei chuckled. "The textbook makes it sound like that. You know, in reality, it was far from boring. I still remember how that was an age of danger – intrigues and betrayals at every turn, never knowing if one would live to see the next day." Kei said, reminiscently.

Sho gaped at him. "_You_ were there?"

"Sure. I remember Oda Nobunaga quite clearly – that war mongering old fool! But he did love Kitsuno – but then, who couldn't love her? She was so…" Kei stopped here, but by now, Sho was wide awake.

"This is awesome! Tell it to me like that! I mean, like your own story! What were you doing there?"

Kei smiled. "Oh I wasn't anyone important – merely an ordinary vassal. I remember, I was still…" Kei stopped abruptly and then rapidly lifted his head, sniffing the air hard. His pupils dilated, and a look of alarm spread over his face.

The other vampires, who had been lazing around listening to Kei, also sat up rigidly. They all stared at the door, as the room crackled with tension.

Sho looked curiously towards the door. _Why was everyone staring? Who or what was coming through the door? _

The door opened - It was only Akira carrying a large cardboard box. Sho did not notice how Akira's face was white with terror, and his eyes were red from crying. Sho jumped up and rushed towards him

"Sho NO!" Kei shouted, but it was too late – Sho had already flung open the box and thrust his hand inside.

______________________________________________________________________

Author's Note –

Can you imagine the amount of random research I did for the 'history' and 'kempeitai' parts? Yeah, I guess I am a geek with too much time on my hands lol!

I deliberately made Kei read out a bit about Uesugi, because picture this – an 11 year old Gackt-chan nodding off in class when he's being taught about the great Kenshin Uesugi coz "its so booorrring"! It's totally hilarious, so I just _had_ to put that in!

Just to clarify – there are 21 vampires, including Kei.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

**New Beginnings**

Sho's hand encountered something soft inside the cardboard box. He peeped in and jumped back with a shocked scream.

"Kei! A-a-a… HEAD! In the box!" Sho backed away, his eyes wide with fear, and then ran to where Kei was standing and flung himself at him, sobbing.

"Luka's head. I found it in a dustbin, somewhere in the periphery of the city. The stench was so strong even the humans could smell it…" Akira said, in a choked voice. "It's decayed horribly…all four of his veins are in shreds. Those fucking humans stuck a note in his mouth, which said 'We'll get you all.' They wanted to make sure we knew that Luka's head hadn't landed up in the bin by accident – they had planted it there deliberately." Akira's voice was trembling with anger and he was near tears again, as he placed the box on the ground. One by one, the others came to look into it. Shinji put his arm around Akira who burst into tears on his shoulder. "We'll bury this last precious piece of Luka and send him off into the next world as respectfully as possible, wont we Kei? Kei?" they all turned to look at Kei when Shinji said this.

Kei didn't even look up. He was still standing in the same place, his arms wrapped in a tight embrace around a blubbering, shaking Sho. "Calm down Sho-chan, come on, there's my brave boy…" Kei muttered soothingly as he stroked Sho's head with one hand.

"Dried blood! And b-b-blue flesh! The smell!" Sho mumbled incoherently.

"Just try not to think about it, try to calm down, I'm here for you, to protect you, aren't I?"

"Kei san… f-f-feeling vomity!" Sho wailed, shivering violently with fright.

"Well then, come along…"Kei half dragged half carried Sho out of the room, stopping briefly to say to the others, "bury it. Now." Without another glance at the box, he led Sho into the bathroom and patted and stroked the child while he retched and threw up the afternoon lunch. He then led Sho back to the now empty room and made him lie down. The boy was still shivering with shock, and he clutched at Kei desperately as if Kei would disappear into thin air if he let go of him. Kei hugged him warmly and muttered soothing things to him till he fell asleep. Then, disentangling himself from Sho's arms, he sat back wearily and finally allowed himself to think over the day's events.

Luka was dead. The human police had not only killed him, but had brutally desecrated his corpse too, hoping to shock Japan's last remaining vampires into submission. Well, that would never happen. _But Luka_…Kei anxiously probed his own emotions. What was he going through, now that his life partner of several centuries (_several lifetimes for a human being_, thought Kei) was gone forever? Yes there was grief – an immense amount of grief not just for the horror that Luka had had to face in his last few days, but also for the extinguishing of the flame of love that had burnt within them both for more than 400 years. He mourned for that lost love. But more than anything, Kei realized guiltily, the feeling of relief overwhelmed him. Relief that things had come to a decisive end, that he was no longer tormented by the worry about what could have happened to Luka. Kei was startled by the calm and almost cold way in which his heart and mind had reacted to the events of the day, till he realized why it was so. _I wonder, would I have been able to bear the knowledge of Luka's death if Sho hadn't been here, needing me so badly? He clung to me, in fear, but I too, I realize now, clung to him for reassurance. Sho's presence steered me away from the dark abyss of pain I surely would have slipped into otherwise, _Kei thought, looking fondly at the sleeping form of Sho. He remembered how, even the last time, when he was mourning for Luka, Sho had been there to rescue him. _As long as he's around, I feel sheltered, cocooned, _thought Kei with amazement, _and yet he's only an 11 year old little boy! _

Kei explained things to a rather subdued Sho the next day. "Some humans are nasty so they do that to us. But not all are like that…"

"Who was he Kei?"

"Luka. One of us." Kei wondered how exactly to explain it to Sho. "You know Sho, all of us living here are in 'pairs', i.e., each of us has a partner. Eternity is too long a time to spend alone, don't you think? Living so long becomes lonely and meaningless without someone to love and cherish and bond with. That's why it's important for a vampire to have a 'life partner' or a companion."

"Is that so? I had never noticed!"

"Yes." Kei smiled. "Shinji and Akira have been together forever. They fight like mad all the time – have been doing so for over a thousand years! Akira has a very fine tuned understanding of the human world – Shinji is equally vague and clueless about it! They're quite opposite to each other by nature, but won't be able to do without each other."

"And Toshi?"

"Haven't you noticed Toshi and Taro? Taro is the oldest vampire here – no one knows exactly how old he is. Toshi is his 2nd companion; god knows who the first was. Taro is supremely unconcerned about humans – he has never formed even a small attachment with any of them. Therefore, as Toshi flitted from one country to another looking for different sports and adventures, Taro good humouredly followed him wherever he went. That's why they are perfect for each other. Apart from them …umm lets see…Jiro and Dai are together, Haruka and Ichiro…"

"Hold on. Who's the odd one out? Who got left alone because of Luka's death?"

"Me." Said Kei, frankly and a little forlornly.

There was a shocked silence from Sho. Then he flung his arms around Kei's shoulders. "You have me!!" he declared loudly.

"Lucky me." Said Kei sarcastically but with a smile on his face. "And lucky for me too that I'm a vampire – otherwise I would have died of hypertension within the first three days of bringing you here, my little devil."

"That's so untrue!" Sho laughed.

"Nope. It's true"

"No!"

"Yes."

"No…"

As Sho engaged in a playful banter with Kei, privately he told himself, _I will never abandon Kei-san! No matter what. _From that day onwards, Sho's devotion to Kei became incomparable, immense. Actually, in the 11 short years that Sho had spent in the world, he had been forced to become painfully aware of what a life sans any love or companionship could be like and he instinctively reached out to protect anyone who he felt was in a similar situation. When he had seen Kei for the first time, moaning and groaning with pain and exhaustion and heartbreak, he had felt an instant connection with the loneliness and the helplessness radiating from this defeated person's being. That feeling was still strong in Sho, as he yearned to become that shield around Kei's heart that would protect him from all things bad.

On his part, Kei was keenly aware of how grateful he felt towards Sho for his unconditional devotion for him. He was aware how the love and tenderness in his heart grew in leaps and bounds with every moment he spent with Sho. Aware of how every pore of his being strove to work towards the boy's welfare.

He watched with wonder as he saw the little child grow into a handsome young man, becoming aware that in his own heart he wanted to become so much more to Sho than merely a guardian or a mentor…

_I'm losing it, _he thought, with amazement and a little bitterness, as he noted the changes in his own reactions to Sho. _I've become absolutely smitten with that boy._

He noticed every movement of Sho, reveled and rejoiced over every 'cute' gesture he made. When Sho looked at him, the unnervingly penetrating depth in his blue eyes made Kei's heart race at top speed, so that he had to look away. A casual touch, a casual hug sent shivers down Kei's spine – so much so that nowadays, Kei found it impossible to fall asleep on his futon during the afternoon, just because Sho always lay next to him and always flung an arm or a leg around him while sleeping.

For Sho, Kei was his most trusted, most loved friend. The bond with Kei was the deepest that Sho had forged with anyone. Kei was that magical person in Sho's life who could fulfill all his desires. On his part, Kei strove to live up to all of Sho's expectations from him.

"I want to learn bicycling." Said Sho, aged 12. Kei taught him how to cycle.

"I want to learn swimming." Said Sho, aged 14. Kei taught him how to swim.

"I want to learn martial arts." Said Sho, aged 16. Kei taught him karate.

"I want to learn shooting. I want to go with you guys when you go to kick the ass of the yakuza or whoever the hell you get all that money from…" said Sho, aged 18.

"No it's too dangerous." Said Kei dismissively.

"Why? I'm sick of sitting around at home while you guys are out all night having fun risking your lives – don't interrupt! I know what you want to say – that vampires can't get hurt. But you _can_ get caught, can't you, by the police? What would I do then, all alone in this world? Just listen – JUST LISTEN TO ME…UGH! I SOUND LIKE THE HEROINE FROM SOME ACTION FLICK – you know, where the men all go off to have gun blazing fun while she sits at home, wringing her hands and crying…or getting molested by the baddies." Amidst laughter from the others, Sho struck a dramatic pose, looking out into the horizon. "I am ready, Kei-san, to become the _hero_ of my life."

Kei rolled his eyes. "Hate to break it to you Sho, but your life is not some kind of slick gangster movie."

"Awww Kei, please! I'm so sick of sitting around…"

"Sho you're repeating yourself. Shut up. Stop whining. I get it. I should have known I can't keep you out of it forever." Kei sighed. "Fine, we'll start your training tomo…"

"I want to start _now_."

Over the next year, Sho was taught the use of sophisticated weaponry. He was taught how to move with speed, dodge bullets effectively, and aim well. Kei had never seen Sho work so hard towards anything, ever. Sho practiced and practiced from dusk to dawn till his body was ready to break from exhaustion. Sho's skills soon became almost extraordinarily superhuman. His concentration was intense. His marksmanship, unerring. His movements, amazingly fast and flexible. So good was he that during the mock fight sessions, the vampires often forgot that he was human and therefore, vulnerable, and forgot to be cautious with their weapons while tackling him, and fought him in earnest. Yet, despite his opponents' natural speed, strength, flexibility and invincibility, Sho never lost in a fight and never allowed a bullet to even scratch his skin. They all immensely enjoyed these practice sessions, and only Kei noticed the soft groans of pain or exhaustion which Sho would sometimes secretly let out after an especially grueling fight, when he thought no one was looking.

_He's pushing himself too hard yet his body seems to be holding up quite easily. He has become the best, far better than the rest taken together, though they're all vampires_, thought Kei, his heart filled with pride.

A little more than a year after he started training, Sho went along with the others to a raid for the first time. Kei's task was to get hold of whatever money or valuables he could lay his hands on while the others fought with the gang. Therefore, he worked alone, sick with worry about Sho's well being. What was he up to, out there? What if he couldn't protect himself well enough? Kei was impatient to finish his work and get back to the others.

He reached home much after the others. Entering the building, he caught the strong smell of blood, though not Sho's (he thanked god for that) but Toshi's.

"What happened?" Kei asked, as he entered and saw Toshi lying on the floor, in the middle of a pool of his own blood. "Five bullets." Toshi groaned in answer.

"_Five_! You moron, how the hell could you let them do that to you?!" Kei gasped in surprise. Toshi looked shamefaced while Taro, who was busy digging out the bullets from Toshi's torso, glared at Kei. The others – including Sho – burst into laughter.

"The slowest gets hit first!" mocked Sho, slapping Toshi on the back, making the vampire yell out in pain.

Kei walked away and started stashing the money into a broom closet. He was immediately aware that Sho was standing behind him, waiting for him to turn. _Shut up, you stupid creature_, he told his heart which was thudding wildly, and turned to Sho. Sho was bubbling over with excitement. "I got loads of men- and didn't even get scratched myself!" he said rather boastfully, his blue eyes sparkling like a pair of stars.

Kei promptly poked Sho's left shoulder sharply. "Ow! Ok, so just that one teeny-weeny scratch, but nothing else." Admitted Sho, sulkily.

Kei smiled and pulled up Sho's sleeve. "Let me take care of that."

"No it's no big deal…"

"It'll heal faster with some ointment. So shut up. And sit down."

Sho meekly sat and watched Kei dab the medicine on his shoulder.

"God, Kei, look at you! Your hands are shaking so badly!" Sho gently caught Kei's trembling hands in his own and said, "I'm ok, really. Don't worry so much about me all the time. I can take care of myself." When Kei looked up, Sho smiled slowly at him. Kei smiled back though he felt as if he had just died.

That afternoon, as Kei fought the instinct to either flinch away or wrap his arms tightly around the sleeping Sho, he decided that enough was enough – he needed to come up with a plan right now…

The next day, early in the morning, Sho was cleaning the kitchen table and Kei was watching him, mesmerized, as if Sho was achieving impossible feats of heroism instead of just doing boring old chores. Then Kei told himself to snap out of it and put his plan to action. His plan was fairly simple – he figured that the more Sho stayed away from him, the easier it would be for him to get over him. As he himself couldn't go out during the day, he was determined to get Sho out of the building for as long as possible.

"Sho could you please go out and get some…er…ice cream for me? I feel hungry."

Sho looked at Kei suspiciously. "You don't eat ice cream, you _can't,_ you're a vampire, remember?"

_Wow, I'm so far gone I can't even think straight now_, Kei cursed himself silently. Then he said, again trying to be casual, "nope, I'm pretty sure it's an ice cream craving."

"If you're hungry just go drink some blood."

"It's finished. I checked the freezer. No human blood in this place, except the stuff flowing inside your body." Kei smacked his lips mock menacingly.

"You won't dare to, you jerk." Sho glared at him. "What the hell do you really want? Just spit it out!"

"Sho, I think you should go out more. Into the sunlight. It'll be good for you."

"No. I hate the sunlight. It hurts my eyes."

"It'll be…er… good for your complexion. Sunlight helps your skin generates…umm…vitamin D I think, which is good for your skin. It prevents you from developing pimples on your face…"

Sho gasped in horror. "I will NEVER get pimples on my perfect face! Don't be such a liar! And all that vitamin D nonsense is pure bullshit, I'm sure."

"Nope, it's true. Its there in the 'Health and Nutrition' chapter of your old science textbook…wait, I'll find it and show it to you." Kei got up and started hunting for it. Sho saw Kei was getting into his 'teacher' mode, and fled from the room, grabbing his sunglasses and yelling, "I'll get you your ice-cream, old man!"

Grumbling and abusing Kei with the choicest swear words he could think of, Sho set off at a quick pace, scanning the surroundings for the nearest ice cream cart he could get to. He soon saw one in the nearby park. A white cart, with a girl in a white uniform standing beside it.

"Miss, one carton of vanilla." Sho said. She didn't look up, lost in her own thoughts. Her head was bowed low, her hair falling forward, covering her face almost entirely.

"Miss, excuse me, a carton of vanilla ice-cream." Sho said loudly. She looked up quickly with a startled expression. Then with a mumbled "sorry, sir", she started rummaging into her cart. Sho looked intently at her face. It was a gentle childlike face but with a gloomy depressed expression. Sho took the icecream from the girl and paid her, still looking curiously at her. She did not even look up at him as she took the money, as if he didn't exist for her.

As Sho walked back, he found himself thinking, _that was the most defeated looking person I have ever seen. _


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

**The Curious Game of Love**

Yi-che hated her life, for the simple fact that there never seemed to be any money. She worked all day; she worked all night and yet never seemed to be able to earn enough to save up to that magical amount, which would fulfill the only dream she had had since she had been 15.

The day Sho met Yi-che with her ice cream cart, she had been even more worried and depressed than usual, because of the added (though not unexpected) difficulties she faced due to her night job. Yi-che worked as an ice cream seller during the day near the park, and painted a mural in the same park during the night. Work had been going smoothly until recently; a bunch of shady looking boys had taken to hanging around in one of the alleys near the park. This would not have bothered her otherwise, but today, she knew that after she returned the cart, she would have to enter the alley in the evening to get to the only paint shop in that area. The thought made her blood run cold, and she hoped fervently that the stranger to whom she was going to turn to for help would actually turn out to be as kind as he looked.

Because even though she had never spoken to him, she waited eagerly every night for him to make an appearance in the park. Sometimes he came, most of the time he didn't. But on the nights he did, Yi-che floated on the seventh heaven of happiness. Just the sight of him – the slight delicate-looking body which, despite being so petite, exuded an aura of immense strength and confidence, the pretty feminine face with the beautiful features that looked as if they'd been painted by an artist, the long fragile-looking neck placed between the sensuously curving collarbones and oh, that soft benign smile that lit up his face and turned it into the face of an angel – yes, just the sight of this handsome wonderful man banished all her fears and melancholy about poverty and hardships and filled her with a sense of peace and calm and sublime happiness. She would watch him from the corner of her eye; see him ambling slowly through the park, taking in the same mundane scenes that he saw every time – children playing and families spending time together – with wide eyed wonder and just a little wistfulness. Then he would reach her half finished painting and carefully scrutinize the newly painted parts, and then (this was what she waited for every day) look at her and smile his exquisite smile, bow politely and walk away. Every time she told herself that she must speak to him or at least smile back at him, but when the time came, she always seemed to blank out!

_But today, if he turns up (and I hope to god he will) I must speak to him out of necessity, if nothing else_, she thought, as she waited.

There he was…her heart thudded with excitement and nervousness as she saw the tiny figure clad in a white shirt and blue jeans walking towards her.

Before Yi-che could gather enough courage to speak to him, Kei said, "hello! Not painting today? May I ask why?"

"Ah…umm… actually my paints have finished and I need to buy some more and…er… the shop is over there…" she pointed to the dark alley and Kei understood what she meant immediately.

"I see. Can I accompany you down there? Don't look so nervous, I'm a good guy, don't worry!"

Yi-che blushed. "No, no, I know you are…thank you, I would really like that."

They walked together in complete silence. Yi-che felt extremely uncomfortable until she looked at him – he was walking with complete ease, and when he felt her eyes on him he turned to her and gave a friendly smile. She immediately felt relaxed and smiled back.

"Hi, I'm Kei."

"Yi-che."

"So you're an artist."

"Kind of, yeah…I'm not very good."

"No no you're very good, I really like your mural."

"Thanks."

They were now in the narrow alley, but Yi-che felt no fear. The boys who were hanging around stared at them but made no move to waylay them or even call out to them.

After they had returned to the park, he smiled and said, "It was nice meeting you, Yi-che. I'll get going now, but if you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask me, ok?"

"Yes, thank you very much Kei-san!" As Yi-che looked at Kei's retreating back, she realized that she was feeling absolutely deliriously elated – an emotion she had not felt for a long time.

***

As Sho sat with other vampires that night who were planning their next raid on a gang of thugs carefully, he found his attention wandering to the ice cream seller he had seen that morning. "what could make someone _so_ sad?" Sho's heart melted towards that girl for two reasons mainly – the first being that he realized that he was itching to go and help her because he hated seeing anyone so sorrowful, and secondly he realized to his own surprise that he found her to be very pretty. Sho contemplated over the second realization for a long time because admiration for a woman's beauty was a new feeling for him. _Obviously, coz I've been surrounded by men all my life_, he thought, as he looked around at the others. Hmm, who among the vampires gathered here was beautiful? Well, Kei undoubtedly had the loveliest smile he had ever seen but, Sho came calmly and logically to the conclusion, that in the beauty department, no one could hold a candle to himself. _Oh well_… Sho abandoned that particular pleasant though narcissistic train of thought (sometimes he got bored of admiring himself) and turned his attention to the ice cream girl again. He decided to go meet her next day and ask her exactly how he could help her.

***

The next day, Yi-che was still on a high from her encounter with Kei. Hence, even though none of her troubles had disappeared, she felt happier and smiled more. She no longer ignored her customers and even joked around with the kids who came to buy ice cream from her.

"Hi! Remember me from yesterday?"

Yi-che looked up to see a handsome young man with glittery blue eyes and a wide impish smile standing before her.

"Er…no…"

Sho's face fell. "I just thought maybe…anyway, you look much happier today! Tell me why?"

Yi –che was taken aback at his forthright manner of speaking.

"Happier?"

"Yeah! Like, yesterday, you looked like you'd burst into tears any moment..."

"Excuse me?" _what a rude fellow!_ Thought Yi-che as she started wheeling her cart to a different spot to get away from him. He refused to take the hint, however, and fell in steps with her.

"…so I thought I'll come over and ask you what was wrong. I could maybe help. I'm a good problem solver."

"no." she said shortly.

"No? Oh I guess that's ok, you seem happy enough now. By the way, where are we going?"

Yi-che stopped with a sigh. 'Look, do you want an ice cream or not? If not then stop wasting my time."

"Sure I want one. What flavor do you like?"

"For god's sake how does it matter?"

"Just tell me won't you?"

"Sigh…ok…dark chocolate."

"Right, so, Miss, I'll buy one vanilla and one dark chocolate."

She handed him the two packets. He handed one back to her. "The chocolate one's for you of course, you silly!"

She gaped at him. Then her face broke into a smile. "Thanks, you're very persistent, aren't you?"

"heh. Now that you've figured that out, why don't you let me hang around here with you? At least till I finish my ice cream!"

"Fine, but then you must go away."

Sho grinned and then proceeded to eat his ice cream excruciatingly slowly, taking tiny nibbles from it like a small boy. Yi-che watched, her good temper restored. _He seems nice. He's kind of cute too. No harm in letting him hang around,_ she thought.

"I'm Sho."

"Yi-che."

"Not Japanese, huh?"

"Chinese."

"Yeah. So, where do you live?"

"Somewhere. None of your business."

"Ok…so…tell me about your problem...I'm really curious."

"That is also none of your business."

"So tell me something about… your family…your mom and dad."

"None of your B!"

"What the hell! How are we to have a normal conversation if nothing is my business?!" Sho threw up his arms in despair, rather dramatically, forgetting about the ice cream (which was anyway steadily melting away) which then promptly fell on the ground. Yi-che burst into delighted laughter while Sho looked at the ice cream like he'd like to slowly torture it to death. Then he turned to Yi-che with a gloomy expression on his face and said, "Well then, I better get going…"

"Poor Sho!" Yi-che giggled.

"It's not funny." Sho snapped back, walking away. She grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Sorry. here." She reached into her cart and took out another pack of vanilla ice-cream for him. He grinned and took it from her.

"Thanks!", he said as he happily started licking it.

Sho talked about carefully chosen neutral topics then, like the weather and the annoying kids in the park, while Yi-che mostly listened and sometimes answered his harmless questions. She felt herself warming up to this irresistibly charming guy.

From then onwards, Sho came every morning to give her company, and only left in the afternoon when the sun rose right overhead. He stopped buying ice cream for himself after the first day (he confessed to his deep dislike for all things sweet) and stopped buying it for her after the fifth day ("you'll get fat." He told her sternly. She made a face, though privately she was also sick of them by that time.). But Yi-che no longer expected him to buy anything. She enjoyed his company very much and even started getting used to his forthright manners.

"Look at that guy over there." Said Sho one day when they didn't have too many customers. He was pointing at a man and a woman across the street. "Tall, long hair down to his waist, serious expression, tight leather pants, with that girl – she's short with a boy-cut and seems annoyingly chirpy…"

"Yeah what about them?"

"Well he's a shinobi from the 15th century reincarnated to protect the girl, who's the reincarnation of a princess…"

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Sho laughed. "When I get bored I just pick random strangers on the street and make up manga-type stories about them. Try it, it's fun!"

"You're super weird."

"I know, tell me something new." Sho said and mock-yawned.

Yi-che felt intrigued by the game. "I think the guy is the prince and the girl is…umm…"

"Yeah you might be right – he's way better looking than her. He's kinda hot and she's kinda…ordinary."

"Sho! You totally gay person!"

"What! That doesn't make me gay!"

"Ok, ok…"

"Though yeah, the guy is _really_ hot…"

So the two of them hung around together, laughing and chatting. Sho stayed longer and longer, even braving the afternoon sun to be with her (he instead took to applying copious amounts of SPF 50 sunscreen). Yi –che looked forward to his company everyday, and scolded him when he occasionally did not turn up.

Sho never brought up personal topics of conversation after that first day, afraid that she'll snap at him but also because he himself did not want to reveal anything about his life with the vampires to her. However one day, a young man came to talk to her, and suspiciously eyed Sho. "Gege!" exclaimed Yi-che.

"This is Sho, my friend, and Sho, this is Son Tin-chen , my elder brother." Yi-che introduced them, blushing with embarrassment, because she had not bothered telling either one of them about the other's existence. The young man bowed to Sho, then spoke a few curt words to Yi-che and then left.

Even though Sho did not quiz Yi-che about this incident, she still decided that it was time she told him all about herself.

"Son is 8 years older than me. He works in a packing factory, as a driver and delivery man. It's a lot of hard work, and it doesn't really pay well, but he has no choice because his education is incomplete. You see, my parents, who were immigrants, could barely manage to send us to school. When both of them died together in a bus accident, I was 8 and he was 16. Our parents did not leave any money and Son dropped out of school to work so that I could continue my education. I was always very good at art, so he wanted me to go to an art school afterwards but we didn't have enough money so I did not want that. After completing my schooling I got myself this job. Son worked so damn hard to keep me at school." Yi-che turned to Sho, "do you know what it feels like to see someone sacrifice his entire life, use all his energy, simply for your welfare?"

Sho smiled contemplatively. "I can … imagine", he said, thinking about Kei and all that he meant to him.

"The bond I have with Son – it's not possible to describe it through words. That's why I always wanted to do something for him ever since I turned 15, but for it I need money and I never seem to be able to earn enough." She finished gloomily.

"What do you want?"

"It's a simple wish really. The place where he works is really far away. He has to get up early and travel in a horrible crowded public transport every day. I wish I could buy him a motorbike so that occasionally, if not everyday, he would be able to go to work and come back on it, and actually enjoy the trip – he loves bikes! But I've been saving for years and even then have managed to save only about half the total money."

Sho said, "Leave it to me."

"No! Sho, I can't let you do that."

"Why not? Please! Let me provide half the money- I can, you know, it'll be no problem."

"It's not that."

"You don't want it to be a joint gift, is that it?" Sho sighed dramatically, "and I thought we were friends…"

"We are! It's not that! It's just…" she hunted around for a reason but found none.

"Good! Then that's decided – we'll go bike shopping tomorrow!"

***

"Why do you want so much money?"

"I want to buy a bike."

"That's not enough for a bike."

"I want to buy half a bike."

Kei gaped at him in astonishment, "huh?!"

Sho blushed. "I mean…I'm going pay half the amount. It's for someone else."

"Who's paying the other half? Who's it for?" Kei asked, frowning. Now perhaps the mystery of Sho's daily disappearances would be unraveled.

Sho's blush deepened till his face looked like a fresh tomato, garden variety. Everyone understood what such a blush indicated.

"Sho's got himself a girl! Or wait…is it a boy?!" Shinji yelled, rolling over with laughter. Sho glared at him, and turning to Kei, said with attempted casualness, "she's my friend. And it's for her brother."

Kei smiled and said "take it."

So the next day, Sho and a very excited Yi-che went bike shopping. It turned out that Yi-che knew much more about bikes than Sho did (as she had been poring over automobile magazines since she had been 15) which turned out to be mildly embarrassing as the salesperson kept asking Sho questions and Yi-che kept answering them rather expertly. Anyway, they got hold of one and after signing papers and such things, they were told that it would be delivered in a few days' time to Yi-che's home.

"Let's have a small party on that day." said Yi-che excitedly. "You must come with all your family."

"My family?"

"Yes. Oh Sho , don't you have one? I'm so sorry! I never even asked you about it…"

"No, no, I do have one!"

"Well then tell me all about them!"

"Nothing much to tell." Said Sho, carefully, "I'm an orphan, they brought me up. They're a bunch of guys living together. You'll see when you meet them…"

That Sunday evening, Sho landed up at Yi-che's place – a small flat in a building in one of the poorer localities of the city – with an eager Toshi and a reluctant Kei in tow. Yi-che opened the door to them, and her heart leapt into her mouth when she saw Kei standing in front of her. Kei was equally startled. However both of them managed to maintain their composure, as Sho introduced them. "Guys this is Yi-che. Yi-che, this is Toshi and this is Kei, they're my buddies, and my family." They all went in to introduce themselves to Son who just couldn't stop thanking Sho again and again for the bike.

With the help of the steadily-getting-more-drunk duo of Sho and Son, the party was a great success. Toshi did not drink, yet happily went along with the crazy antics of the other two. Yi-che felt shy and awkward with Kei, whom she had not seen since the day she had spoken to him, yet she could not take her eyes off him for too long. Kei tried to behave as normally as possible, though he was getting more and more uncomfortable with the kind of attention Yi-che was paying him.

As night descended, the group decided to move to the beach to continue their revelry. Son was not allowed to drive his bike, although he badly wanted to – Kei drove them all there. Sho, Toshi and Son rolled about in the sand, screaming and laughing, while Yi-che and Kei sat watching them.

This then became a Sunday evening ritual for all of them. Kei, Toshi and later Shinji genuinely liked and enjoyed the company of Yi-che and Son and liked hanging around with them. These evenings spent together were precious, and time flew by rapidly whenever they got together.

One night, when it was about the fourth time they had met, the foursome of Sho, Son, Shinji and Toshi were sitting unexpectedly quietly on the beach, gazing up at a large full moon with the waves lapping at their feet.

Son sighed contentedly, "It's such a lovely scene."

"Yeah. It is called _romaan-tikku_ (romantic) in English." Sho pronounced the word carefully.

Son laughed. "Yes indeed, romantic. And speaking of romance, I've been noticing the change in my sister…" Son's smile vanished as he peered anxiously into Sho's face. "I feel I can talk to you about it Sho – after all, you're not only friends with Yi-che but also with Kei, the person I suspect she's been steadily falling for in the last few weeks."

Sho looked startled at this news. All four of them turned to look at the couple sitting and talking in the car.

Yi-che and Kei sat together comfortably, talking and laughing. Kei felt Sho's gaze on him and turned and waved to him. As the four of them waved back, Son turned to Sho and asked again, "Sho, will you please find out if Kei feels the same about her or not? Is there any future in this relationship? Is he worth her affections? I don't want her heart broken…"


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

**Shampoo!**

"She's in love with you." said Sho, looking at Kei accusingly. They were sitting alone on the roof of their building and the sun was about to rise over the horizon.

"How could you let that happen, you idiotic vampire? Now you can't disappoint her. I…I won't let you!" Sho was getting more and more angry every moment.

Kei looked intently at Sho.

"What? What are you thinking?" Sho snapped and then looked away, his face etched with pain and bitterness.

"You're in love with her." Kei calmly observed.

"It doesn't matter. She wants you."

"Which is an impossibility."

"No it isn't."

"I'm a vampire. And I'm not in love with her. I'm in love with…nobody." Kei caught himself just in time.

"I don't care that you don't love her! I don't care if you don't want her! All I care about is her happiness. She's suffered a lot in her life and if this is what makes her happy then…please Kei!"

"What are you suggesting?"

"Pretend."

"I see. For how long?"

"As long as it takes for …for…"

"For what, Sho?"

Sho drew a deep breath, "for you to trust her enough to tell her the truth about you, gently."

"Have you gone mad Sho?! How can I do that?! It's the greatest secret of our existence!"

"Then what else can you do Kei? She _needs_ to know, she's become an important part of my life, as important as you are, and I won't let her go."

"Then why don't you confess your love for her." Kei snapped at him. Sho glared back at Kei. "I can't do that. Any way it would be useless. I want to see her happy and you must help. Please Kei you must!" Sho was like a stubborn child.

Kei sighed. He could never go against Sho for long – however harebrained Sho's plans might be. _So Yi-che needs to be told_, thought Kei. He hoped that telling her wouldn't turn out to be the biggest disaster of his life.

That evening Kei met up with Yi-che in the park. Sho had set them up for a date. Yi-che greeted him with a radiant smile. Kei smiled back easily.

"I don't think I'll work today." She said.

"Let's sit somewhere and talk, then."

"I know this small private noodle house we could go to. It's cheap but the food is good."

_Human food!_ Kei's heart sank at the thought of it but he couldn't do anything about it. "Ok." He said.

"Thank you for coming." Yi-che said, once they were seated in a cozy little corner of the noodle house.

"Sho made me." Replied Kei unthinkingly, then immediately regretted saying that. But Yi-che smiled and said, "I guessed that much. He knew about me…er…he's very perceptive, isn't he?"

Kei sighed, "not really, I won't say that – actually thank god for that…"

"Eh?"

"Nothing. Er… how's your painting going?"

"It's nearly finished. I just need to put some finishing touches."

"Have you shown it to Sho? I'm sure he'll like it.

"Why don't you two come over tomorrow evening? I'd have put most of the finishing touches by then, hopefully."

"Eh? The two of us? I dunno…so, how's Son's job going?"

"He still hates it."

"Yeah, Sho was telling me…though the bike seems to have made things easier." Kei trailed off and then relapsed into another awkward silence.

"It's a beautiful night.", began Yi-che again. Looking out of the shop window, she remarked, "What a lovely moon and the stars are visible too, rather unusually."

Kei looked out and smiled. "Yeah it is. It's the kind of night poets go silly over." He laughed.

"Do you write poetry?"

"Not about the stars and the moon – that's Sho's specialty. The moon seems to hold some sort of an eternal fascination for him, he's written reams and reams about it!"

Yi-che looked at Kei curiously. "Really? He showed it to you?"

"Oh yes! Sho hides nothing from me – even when he tries to, he can't coz I know him so well!"

"And you? Do you reveal all that goes on in your heart to Sho?" Yi-che asked.

Kei looked sharply at her. She had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Do you want to order? The waiters' have been staring at us for quite a while." he said.

"Sure." Yi-che smiled, and dropped that particular line of conversation. An idea was forming in her head, but she didn't want to push Kei into confirming it. _After all_, she thought, mentally chuckling, _I have all the time in the world to figure out the truth_.

After dinner (where Kei forced down a few mouthfuls with difficulty), when Kei was saying goodbye to Yi-che, she asked him out to dinner the next day. Kei was forced to accept out of politeness, though he did not really wish to meet her alone like this any more- she was too sharp for her own good. But there was also the odd burden of breaking the truth about himself to her, and for that he needed to get as close to her as possible.

"How was it?" Sho asked when Kei returned and headed to the bathroom to puke out that night's awful human dinner.

"We're going out again tomorrow."

"That's good." said Sho, looking like he'd like to start shooting people on the street right now.

"Sho, I really think you should tell her about your feelings – then she'll get over me soon enough, knowing that she has such a wonderful person to love her." , said Kei gently, when he saw how much Sho was hurting.

But Sho was adamant. "No! I won't tell her anything about my feelings – and you better not too, you hear? Promise me!"

"Fine I promise." Kei sighed.

So they met again and again, Kei and Yi-che (she gleefully abandoned her mural), talking and eating, going for walks together. They both were the quiet, kind type of people, and hence they enjoyed each other's company a lot, and could talk for hours. Kei tried to be careful about what he said, but Yi-che had the keen perceptibility that only a woman infatuated with a man can have. She noticed how eager he was always to talk about Sho, yet also seemed to be keen not to talk about him. She noticed how he automatically thought of Sho whenever she talked of romantic things like the moon or the stars or sunsets or Casablanca. And when they all met up that Sunday for their weekly get together, she noticed how his eyes followed Sho and only Sho, in and out of the room.

Yi-che's own feelings about all this were mixed. She felt heart broken at the fact that Kei had proved to be so completely unattainable for her. A part of her hated Sho for this, and was jealous of him. But another part of her heart rejoiced at the fact that two such good friends of hers and such good nice human beings to boot had a chance of getting together. And of course, being a rabid yaoi fangirl, she realized quite early on what a totally hot couple they'd make and actually spent some time daydreaming about that…

"Yi-che! What on earth are you thinking? I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes and I'm sure you haven't heard a word!" Son's voice broke into her daydream.

"Sorry Son, repeat?"

Son smiled." I got myself a new job!"

"What?!"

"Yes! You won't believe it, but the strangest thing happened at work yesterday. A guy came and announced that he was from the police and they were recruiting new people for a fresh wing of an existing department – he didn't specify which department. Anyway, he said there will be only an interview the next day. I filled the form yesterday and went for the interview today. I didn't tell you coz I wasn't sure if I'd get through- I mean, all the hundreds of boys working with me applied, you know? Well guess what? I was the only one to get selected! Isn't that cool! Though it makes me wonder – coz there were so many other more deserving candidates there…"

"Who cares? Oh Son, this is great news – finally a decent job for you!"

"A decent job with a decent salary! Not to say the kind of respectability that comes with being in the police force. Yi-che, you can stop being an ice cream seller and maybe, in a few years time, when I have saved enough, you'll be able to go to art school too! Listen, we must hold a big celebration – we must call Sho and the others over!"

***

"Son's in the police?"

"yeah." Sho frowned with worry.

"This is bad." Kei was in absolute shock. A million questions were running through his head – _why? Was it deliberate on their part? If yes then did that mean that the police were going to use Son as a tool for hunting them down? How did they know of their friendship? And if not, then what would Son do if he realized one day that his closest friends were actually his worst enemies? And how long could they go on without revealing this vital truth about themselves?_

Sho spoke again, " Yi-che's called us on Sunday. She said it will be a big affair, so all twenty-two of us are invited."

"No!" Akira spoke up sharply. "What if some of Son's new colleagues are there? We must not go."

"But we must. What would Yi-che think!" Sho said angrily.

"Akira's right Sho, we just cannot take this risk." Kei said firmly.

"I don't care about the rest of you – Cowards! I'm going!"

"Sho, you mustn't…"

"Let him go Kei." Said Akira. "Most probably it won't be anything. Sho, please apologize to Yi-che on our behalf."

***

When Sho went off to Yi-che's party that Sunday, the 21 vampires held a meeting among themselves about this new situation.

Kei began, "I'm worried now – should we have let him go? What if the police officers present there think he's a vampire? What if he gets hurt?"

The others exchanged glances amongst themselves. Kei was puzzled at this. "What is it? Speak up!" he said.

Taro cleared his throat and began – "Kei we've been discussing among ourselves…"

"Behind my back?"

Taro looked nervous. "Yes, behind your back because we didn't know if you'd like the idea. Kei, we all think that you should turn Sho into a vampire."

Kei was speechless with surprise.

Taro hurried on. "It's for his own good really. Things are getting more and more dangerous for us by the day therefore his vulnerability will become a serious handicap for him. If he needs to go on surviving with us, then…"

"No, I won't!" the force with which he answered startled everyone, including himself. But he continued, "I don't think there is any need for that. Sho has us to protect him. And he has too much at stake as a human- he mustn't be made to lose all that."

"Are you talking about the girl?" Shinji interjected sharply. "But this is unbelievable! Are you actually saying that the girl matters?!"

"Yes the girl matters! Or, at least, love matters. Who are we to trifle with his love?" replied Kei angrily, and got up.

Akira stood up too. "You'll regret it one day – don't say that we didn't warn you, then. As for the girl – she doesn't even care about Sho, she spends all her time mooning about you!"

"Shh…he's back. All of you, stop!" said Toshi suddenly and they all started casually talking about something else. A few moments later Sho stomped into the room, looking glum.

"How was your party?"

"ok." Sho replied gloomily. "I'm dead tired. You guys were right, that place was crawling with people from the police department – even Son's boss's boss turned up, and he didn't expect that at all. Yi- che was disappointed that you didn't come, Kei. She wants to meet you tomorrow or the day after."

"I can't. I'm going to the US for the leaders' meeting day after tomorrow, and tomorrow I'm…er…I'll meet her tomorrow." , said Kei when he couldn't think of a sufficiently good excuse to get out of it.

***

As Kei sat facing Yi-che in another quiet little restaurant, he thought it was time he told her the truth about himself. He braced himself for this difficult task. "Yi-che", he began, gently, "I know you like me but I'm sorry I can't like you back."

Yi-che laughed softly. "I already know that." She said.

"Eh? How?"

"You're in love with Sho, aren't you?" Yi-che smiled mischievously.

Kei blushed. "No of course not."

"Yes you are! You thought I wouldn't notice, you silly person? Kei, I had a crush on you. I never took my eyes off you, but your eyes? They never once stopped following Sho!"

"That's coz he's a klutzy idiot and I need to take care…"

"Oh please, that's not the only reason. I've noticed a million little things. How you grow restless when he leaves a room, and how your face lights up when he enters it? Not to say how you are a total softy and a pushover when it comes to Sho…"

"No way! I'm not!"

"You SO ARE! Why are you denying it like this? There's nothing wrong with it – it's really sweet, I think!"

"No it's not. It's disgusting." Kei buried his face in his hands. He never wanted anyone to discover this but now, he felt a flood of relief in being able to talk about his anguish to someone at least. He looked up, "Yi-che, I brought him up. I'm some kind of a father figure to him, apart from the fact that I'm about, _what?_ a gazillion years older than him."

"You can't be that much older."

"You have no idea." Kei said with an ironical smile.

Yi-che leaned forward and took his hands comfortingly. "Don't think like that Kei. You're not his father; this is not some kind of a damned case of incest or something. I think your love is so much more beautiful than normal – the fact that you've seen Sho go through every stage of growth – really makes your love that much truer. And if you insist on the father figure thing, well even then it's not that unnatural; I mean there's this oedipus complex thing about children's first sexual attraction this dude Freud once talked about…"

"I know I was there when his work came out…"

"That's not possible; we're talking about end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century!"

"I said I was there _where_ his work was published. As in Austria. Quite recently" Said Kei hastily. "Anyway, let's drop this useless topic now."

"I don't think it's useless or that we should drop it. I think you should confess to Sho." Said Yi-che, triumphantly.

"No way. No. I can't. I won't be able to say it."

"Well, at least you could give him hints…"

"No!"

"Look Kei, I've seen both of you together and you guys have an amazingly strong bond. Listen, you don't have to say anything, just do it…"

"_Do_ what?!" Kei was getting all kinds of ideas in his head, which made him uncomfortable. "Yi-che, don't force me into something like this. I don't have the courage and I don't want to put him through something so awkward."

Yi-che sat back with a sigh, contemplating what to do next. "I know! I'll set you up with Sho! On dates and all…"

"Please, no." Kei sounded weary. "He's setting me up with you, you're setting me up with him, I mean, what do you guys take me for, really?"

Kei could feel his anger rising, so he got up abruptly, and started to take her leave.

"No, no Kei-san I'm sorry! Ok, listen, just one more request. Will you remember the words I'm about to tell you?"

"What words?"

"Just this – when you see the opportunity, let him know how you feel – directly or indirectly. Don't assume his reactions beforehand. Just let things take their course. And…" she ended like a general lecturing his army, "…be brave! Will you just _remember _these words? I'm not asking you to act upon them. Repeat them for me!"

Kei repeated in a bored voice and left. Yi-che had an amused smile on her face long after he had left.

"What a bloody mess!" thought Kei. He was sitting on the beach, alone, the sea breeze whipping through his hair. "I've realized several things." He said aloud to no one in particular. "First – that this is a perfect triangle – I love Sho, Sho loves Yi-che, Yi-che loves me. Each one of us, being good hearted, wants the other two to be happy together. God only knows how this will end. Second – I'm sitting alone on the beach talking aloud to myself, which surely means that I am going mad. I can feel craziness creeping up on me slowly." He laughed aloud, and then stopped abruptly. _What am I going to do now? _

_***_

The next evening, as they dozed fitfully in their room, Kei prepared for his journey abroad. He was going for a week.

Suddenly Sho called out from the bathroom, "someone please get me the new bottle of shampoo from the store cupboard, will you?"

Kei looked around. No one took any notice. Sho hollered again from the bathroom. So Kei went and as he was taking the bottle out from the cupboard, Yi-che's words suddenly rang in his ears – _when you see the opportunity, let him know how you feel – directly or indirectly. Don't assume his reactions beforehand. Just let things take their course. Be brave!_

_Dare I do this?_ Kei thought. He was feeling reckless for some strange reason. Also the fact that he wouldn't see Sho for an entire week made him ache for a final... something… with him…a word, a touch…whatever the reason may have been, Kei found himself walking into the bathroom, locking the doors behind him, drawing aside the shower curtains (the sight of Sho's naked body made that yearning more painful and his resolve stronger) and said sternly, "your hair is crap filthy! I'm going to shampoo it for you." He kicked the low bathroom seat into the shower area and pointed to it.

Sho looked surprised, but meekly sat down with his back turned to Kei, waiting resignedly for some vigorous and painful rubbing on his head. What he ended up feeling turned out to be quite…_different_.

Kei rubbed the shampoo gently and smoothly into Sho's thick, wet, brown hair, working up a thick lather. Just entwining his fingers through Sho's hair thrilled Kei to the core of his being. Even though he had stroked Sho's hair many times before, this was different. Even Sho seemed to unconsciously realize this as he tilted his head back and rested it upon Kei's left thigh.

The lather started sliding down Sho's head onto his neck. "Let me…wipe that…" Kei could barely whisper. He gingerly touched Sho's throat and started rubbing it. As he smoothly slid his hands up Sho's neck, he could feel his veins, throbbing madly, the adam's apple, swallowing constantly – Sho was clearly responding to Kei's caress and this got Kei more excited. He slipped his fingers down again and gently touched the hollow at the base of sho's throat. Sho let out a soft moan which sent an electric current down Kei's entire body.

Kei then worked his hands slowly along the beautiful curves of Sho's collarbones, tracing the shape, pressing and rubbing with both his hands. He reached the ends and then grabbed his shoulders hard, and started rubbing them with a circular motion, his wet fingers slipping and sliding.

"aah…aah…" Sho was now moaning audibly. Something in Kei's touch was driving him wild so that he forgot everything in the sensuous ecstasy of the moment.

"Oh…god!" Sho gasped loudly as Kei raked the entire length of his shoulders with his nails.

Sho's gasps increased the heat surging up Kei's body, and he could barely control his own moans of pleasure. In his imagination he was now bending over Sho's reclining body, flicking his tongue gently along Sho's cheekbones, tasting his sweat, stopping to suck at his jaw line and then his lips. _Finally his tongue was smoothly slipping into Sho's mouth and entwining with Sho's hot tongue. Sho's mouth was clamping down on his, and Sho's hands were…_

"SHO! Get out of the bathroom right now I really have to pee!!" Toshi's scream rang out of nowhere, deafening them and causing them to spring apart to opposite ends of the bathroom. Now that Kei was rather painfully brought back to reality, he was filled with horror at his indiscretion. He cleared his throat and desperately tried to find a way to say something.

"Ahem…I was just wiping the shampoo off your…Sho?"

Sho's back was turned towards Kei, and his shoulders where shaking.

"Sho? What?"

Sho turned towards him, and Kei saw that he was laughing helplessly.

"Kei you won't believe me if I tell you this…Kei, was I making any…sounds…?"

"Eh?"

"Right now, when you wiped the shampoo off me I felt…I felt…" Sho blushed deeply and averted his eyes from Kei's, his hands fiddling nervously with the shower curtains as he spoke again, "let's just say that for the moment, I just forgot all about being in love with Yi-che. I was only thinking about…about…" Sho lifted his eyes shyly and then they both jumped 10 feet into the air as Toshi's voice bellowed from outside again –"OI! SHO! HAVE YOU FALLEN ASLEEP OR WHAT?! I'M DYING HERE YOU KNOW!"

"Hold on I'm coming." Sho wrapped a towel around himself and then unlocked the door. Toshi ran in without looking at either Sho or Kei, both of whom hurried out.

After a moment's awkward silence, Kei said, "I should be setting off – I have a plane to catch. See you in a week. Going off to New York, you know."

"Yeah I know. Good luck and have a safe trip, Kei-san."

With this weirdly formal goodbye, the two parted and Kei set off for the airport.

***

"Today's meeting is going to be the most important meeting we've had in years, because of several issues that need to be discussed. Kei, will you please begin?" said John Davis, the leader from the US.

Kei had been in New York for the last three days. The seven vampires flying in from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United kingdoms were provided with lodgings for rest by the American vampires. It took them some time to determine the location of the secret meeting place. Now, finally, the all important meeting was taking place.

Kei bowed to Davis, and began "the Japanese police have become too diligent and sharp of late, so I fear for myself and my fellow vampires. A situation of emergency may arise because of which we may have to flee from our country. Hence I wish us to create a plan in advance about providing a safe haven to any vampire or group of vampires who decide to leave their country to seek shelter elsewhere. It would need the cooperation of those of you who have started building up a positive amicable relationship with the human government."

"That means us, right?" Davis said, with a smile. "Don't worry, we'll work on this. Now, the second issue we want to discuss also concerns you, Kei. All 7 of us have decided that it is time that you transformed Sho into one of us." The old vampire smiled. "Don't look so startled. You should have known we'd ask you to do this one day. Now, we know that there is no special bond between the vampire who transforms and the human who is transformed. However, because the process is so painful and dangerous and requires each party to trust the other explicitly, it is advisable for the human being to be transformed only by a vampire he has grown to love and trust. And in Sho's case, it is you. So you must do it for him."

"I have thought about this and decided against transforming Sho." Kei said curtly.

Stunned silence followed this pronouncement.

Then Davis spoke icily, " And may we know, why?"

"For the simple reason that I'm quite sure that Sho does not wish to get transformed. You know how transformation is impossible without the consent of the human, as he takes the first step in the process."

"And what do your friends think about this."

Kei hesitated and then said honestly, "They too want to see Sho get transformed – but I am wholly against it. Sho is enjoying his human life too much – all that will be taken away from him forever once he is transformed."

Andy James, the British leader said, "for some reason, you are not looking at the case clearly, Kei, my boy. Sho has been, from the start, an oddity – a human being brought up by vampires and living in their company. Hence it is inevitable that he should be transformed –it is frankly too dangerous for one to keep the company of vampires in today's day and age without being invincible oneself. If Sho gets killed by the police – or even if he dies a natural death at the young age of 70-80, then what use would be all this trouble of taking care of him and bringing him up? As for him missing his human life – why, that is ridiculous! How long has he been alive – about 20 years? Those 20 years will fade away after a thousand years of living as a vampire; trust me on that, Kei. Look at me; I have absolutely no idea what I was like when I was human. You, my boy, are still too young to forget – I think, no, I can see it in your eyes that you remember quite well what it felt like to be human. But believe me; you will forget one day, and so will Sho."

Kei was silent. He remembered his own youth, about four centuries back, and his first meeting with Luka…

* * *

Author's note –

1. I just laughed and laughed when I wrote the shampoo part – it was so much fun! Every sentence seemed to be a sexual innuendo – even those which were actually quite innocent! I must thank my friend mischiefmaker123 for coming up with the shampoo idea!

Also I kept writing 'Hyde' and 'Gackt' by mistake instead of 'Kei' and 'Sho' because I was…er…picturing it all in my head…lol!

2. The chapter was getting too long so I ended it here- I meant to fit in the kei-luka story here but now, that'll be in the next chapter.

3. Finally, I will ask (no, beg!!) for reviews. Do you guys like it? Or do you think Gackt should SUE me for distorting his beautiful story (ah, getting sued by Gackt - that should be fun!). Whatever it is, please stop and give me your feedback – I don't mind even if it's only a word or two! (Even those who don't have an account on fanfic can write reviews, I hope you know that). A big thank you to the three who have already reviewed my fic!

Thanks for reading till here!


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